The International Atomic Energy Agency weighed in on the simmering nuclear crisis with alarming radiation data, but the government said Thursday it has no plans for now to expand the current evacuation zone.

The international nuclear watchdog said Wednesday in Geneva it detected about 2 million becquerels of radioactive substances per square meter, double the IAEA limit to prompt an evacuation of residents, in soil samples from the village of Iitate about 40 km northwest of the Fukushima No. 1 plant.

With the data, the IAEA effectively urged the government to expand the current no-go zone of 20 km around the plant. Residents of areas 20 km to 30 km of the plant are advised to stay indoors.

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The Atomic Age is an ongoing project that aims to cultivate critical and reflective intervention regarding nuclear power and weapons. We provide daily news updates on the issues of nuclear energy and weapons, primarily though not exclusively in English and Japanese via RSS, Twitter, and Facebook. If you would like to receive updates in English only, subscribe to this RSS.

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The artwork in the header, titled "JAPAN:Nuclear Power Plant," is copyright artist Tomiyama Taeko.

The photograph in the sidebar, of a nuclear power plant in Byron, Illinois, is copyright photographer Joseph Pobereskin (http://pobereskin.com/)

This website was designed by the Center for East Asian Studies, the University of Chicago, and is administered by Masaki Matsumoto, Graduate Student in the Masters of Arts Program for the Social Sciences, the University of Chicago.

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